Wasn't there already one? I remember watching a fictionalization of the Tuskegee Airmen at some point in my life.
Uh, it's in post-production. And it's been coming for twenty years, actually. EDIT: Yeah, there was a movie made about them (With Larry Fishburne), but I think it was for TV.
There was a TV movie called The Tuskegee Airmen starring Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding, Jr. It came out in the early/mid '90s, I believe.
There was the HBO movie entitled "The Tuskegee Airmen" that starred Laurence Fishburne. Aside from that, I'm not familiar with any other movies about them.
Triple post, but yeah, that's the one I was thinking of. Which is odd, because he also did a movie about the Tuskegee polio experiments for HBO as well. Hrm.
Considering that the theme is the segregated army perhaps the Court Martial of Jackie Robinson would make a more personnel story for an audience. You can have Joe Lewis fighting to get Robinson to OCS and then his predating Rosa Parks act of civil disobedience only to watch the 761st Tank Battalion going to war as Robinson was discharged in 1944 safe to meet his moment in history.
Another movie that dealt with the segregation and racism in the military was "Men of Honor." I always felt it did a good job moving the characters through the history of the integration of the navy. BUT going back to The Pacific, the program is starting to come into it's own. The episodes are building on each other and last nights was easily the strongest yet. The ferocity of the combat and dehumanizing of the characters is coming across and showing the vast difference of the fighting in the PTO vs the ETO.
'The Pacific' is more muddled than BoB, and it is not just because the story structure is different. There should be more narrative to tie the events together regardless of whether or not the story is about one company or several different soldier's experiences. The combat is interesting and very well-done but it seems to take second seat to the added fictionalized 'drama'. The cast is pretty good though and the show is picking up, so I will continue to watch it. One problem I had - the series fails in capturing the Marine culture which should be different from what we saw in BoB. I don't feel like I am watching Marines. Also I know a number of people who have been in combat - they tend to be more matter-of-fact about their experiences and did not spend 90% percent of the time moping and looking stricken. But then again, this dramatic 'wallowing' problem happens with a number of Hollywood war movies/shows. And though I was put off with Mr. Hank's initial comments on this series (I don't like revisionist history), the tone of the show has not been too bad so far. (Yes Mr. Hanks, the Americans could be quite racist towards the Japanese, but their attitudes paled in comparison to how the Japanese themselves saw things. Let's not forget to accurately show that too.)
Somehow the series doesn't click with me.. maybe it's because i know the european theatre of war better or am simply more interested in the european WW2. However even a few episodes in i still couldn't remember who was who and the fights were not that interesting too (line up in a ditch and let loose at the charging Japanese) and i'm not quite sure why that is.. i just can't put my finger on it.
I have sort of given up on it, I have had no great desire to see the latest episode. There is just something about it I don't like, mayve the characters or the setting I dunno.
I think it's that the series so far has two colours in its emotional palate: silent brooding and outright misery. Compare this to Band of Brothers. Sure, it covered the "war is hell" angle all the way through, and showed us the horrifying psychological effects it had on the soldiers. But there was also a certain amount of joy, found in friendship and camaraderie, to be had. Winters and Nixon had a solid, well-developed friendship. We saw the men of Easy Company become a family--it's right there in the title. Characters like Garnier, Bull and the rest of the guys were fun to get to know. Watching it you don't envy the crap they go through, but you do envy the brotherhood they developed. It was developed, strong and consistent throughout the show. In The Pacific, we just have three brooding, joyless, loner-type men who get more and more miserable as the series progresses. They aren't characters who you'd want to share a drink with. Basilone and Sledge barely have personalities, they're more archetypes than anything: the "war hero guilty about being away from the war" and "the boy who loses his innocence". Leckie is a little bit more rounded, but I find him an unlikeable jerk. It's hard to care about their situations because they tend to do two things: mope about their crappy lives and look scared when things are blowing up. What's missing is the brotherhood. Without that, this war is just an unending hell.
The way the units were organized is reflected in that. The BOB showed a cohesive unit that stayed together and worked as one in battle situations throughout the way. The USMC uses similar sized units but the way the battle was fought was completely different. It was more of a massed assault that quickly broke into battles of individual survival and small groups of whoever was close by. Compare the assault led on the Belgium town shortly after Bastogne (led by the LT who was completely inept) to the crossing of the airport n Peleliu. While similar in tactical manavering, the two where worlds apart in actual execution. The latter was much more a every man for himself. I'm not sure a BOB camaraderie as portrayed could have really existed in the PTO. In the final episode of BOB (Points) the unit was preparing for a jump into Japan. I recall thinking how totally unprepared the veterans of Europe would have been for the order of battle in the Pacific. Their experiences could have actually worked against them with the battle style and ethos being so different. In the viewing of The Pacific, I think to many are unable to set aside their expectations of a second BOB. The only way I can think to describe the two are to tell you to compare Casino Royale starring Peter Sellers to the new Casino Royale with Daniel Craig. Same story but completely different in every way.
So, I'm hanging on to the show til the end because, what the hell I suppose. I was just doing some reading about Okinawa and found out about this dude: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teruto_Tsubota Now that's a story I wish they would have told. The preview for the Okinawa episode looks like a bad Vietnam war movie cliche unfortunately. That would have been a fresh perspective on a war story.
Have you seen the movie Hell to Eternity about Mexican American Marine Guy Gabaldon, who was raised by Japanese American foster parents who got interned. He pulled off similar feats on Saipan.
Well Jeffery Hunter played the Mexican Galberon but for the most part it was accurate, from the childhood in East LA with his Japanese family to Saipan. The Marine was nominated for the Medal of Honor but awarded a Silver Star. After the movie it was upgraded to a Navy Cross.
After last night's episode I sooo wanna give up on this show. I don't know what the heck Spielberg and Hanks were going for in "The Pacific" but it fails miserably. It's like lets take everything that was great about "BoB" and "Saving Private Ryan" and throw that completely out the window and take everything that was crappy about "Pearl Harbor" and use that instead. These characters are so dull and unlikable...Ughh never mind. I'll finish it out since there is only two episodes left. I had no issue paying $60.00 for the BoB box-set in fact I'm seriously considering double dipping and picking up in Blu-Ray but there is no way in the world I wouldn't even bother picking up "The pacific" not even from a discount bin. I honestly don't think I could sit through it again.
^ Yeah, I'll probably add this to my collection eventually but I'm not in a rush. The way they've structured the stories just makes them all uninteresting. I mean, Basilone's story is basically Flags of our Fathers, but spread out across the 8 episodes it becomes rather pointless. I sort of meant in terms of the acting and whatnot.